More on the Shadecloth

There is more going on with shadecloth and bird netting - especially given it is hotting up again.

You can see the first half of the story HERE.

The shade cloth on Beds 1 and 3 has been anchored, below. I just used heavy stakes on the ends, and a bit of string. When I want to take them off, I will just roll them around the stakes, ready to put back on. They hold up to the wind okay, but occasionally need repositioning. And for Bed 3, the stakes hit against the metal support in the breeze, but are on the wrong side of the house to keep us awake at night.

In Bed 2 (above), I have just thrown a sheet of shade cloth across the bed, held up by short stakes with big drawing pins in the top. Won't hold up to strong wind, but will do for the minute. Needs a couple of stakes a little bit longer in the centre to hold it up a bit. And maybe some upholstry pins.

Then, there is the teepee that can be seen in the background, to cover one tomato. This consists of long bamboo stakes from Bunings (quite cheap), just tied at the top, making sure the ends stick up a bit.

Then I just wrapped some old bird netting around it (twice, there were holes in it), pleating it a bit at the top and dropping it down on the exposed sticks. The lot was fastened with clothes pegs - they just come off and the netting slides up to pick the tommies. There is already a central stake in there to support the tommie, and the bamboo ties above that.

I then half-wrapped an odd piece of shade cloth around it, so that it gets morning sun but is protected from afternoon sun. Fastened with....... Clothes pegs again. This method is about to hit the pots.

And last one - I have shadecloth/sticks on top of these two shadehouses, but have now got some hessian (from Bunnings again - looking for some better stuff - the weave is too loose). I have a garbage bin of water by these, and just throw the hessian in for a couple of minutes, then throw it over the top. If I have time. if no time, I just hose it - which is not as good. I suppose you could even use old towels for this.

The evaporation of the water cools the top of the shadehouses down just that little bit. This is my main propagating area, although a lot of stuff has been moved into better shade in the garden. Again, I spray a little bit of water around there when it is hot, and the evaporation cools things down.

What I don't do is hose leaves in the middle of the day in hot sun. Only in shade. If I HAVE to water, to save something, I make sure I water the soil, not the leaves.